Jenn Blake and Family
The inaugural queer contemporary arts festival, FAMBO, launched over the bank holiday weekend, inviting families of all kinds to its Redfern venue for an event like no other. Face painting, cape making, drag queens and glow sticks were the order of the day which was rounded off by a fabulous Heaps Gay partay!
Self-professed queer parent and FAMBO’s artistic director, Jenn Blake, chatted to us about the challenges that come with raising kids in a same sex partnership, her hopes for the future of the LGBTIQA+ community and how she really feels about the vote on marriage equality.
TLH: tell us a bit more about the how and why of how FAMBO came to be?
JB: As a queer parent I wanted to create something new that would provide my family and other queer families an opportunity to come together and participate in an event that explores and celebrates our queer culture and community. These opportunities are surprisingly quite rare and I think within the context of last year’s plebiscite on marriage equality it became an urgent need to do just that, and from that urgency FAMBO was born.
TLH: how did you feel about the vote on marriage equality?
JB: It was surprisingly difficult and confronting considering that I hadn’t felt especially othered for most of my adult life, so to suddenly feel like your personal and family life was out there for moral debate was really very alarming and upsetting. On a positive note, it set a fire under the community and I think from that fire will come some very positive things and it brought the community together in really important ways. Completely shit though.
TLH: what additional challenges (to the already tough parental experience) have you found yourself facing as a queer parent?
JB: My only parenting experience has been this one so it’s very hard for me to compare what the differences are. I think all parenting experiences are probably unique and challenging in different ways. I think what is most on my mind is to try to teach my children to embrace their differences and respect others, to make choices which are authentic to who they are and not just follow patterned and gendered behaviour. To be a queer parent, I believe, is to be political and to be questioning the norm. I’m very lucky as we live in the inner city where we are very supported. My children’s daycare even flies the pride flag. I can imagine it would be a very different experience for queer families living in communities which aren’t as accepting and supportive.
TLH: what do you hope for the LGBTIQA+ community when it comes to our children’s generation?
JB: I think if we put in the work now, as a community, a society, then our children’s generation will have a very good chance of escaping a lot of the shame and trauma that exists within current and past LGBTIQA+ community. But it won’t just happen magically and we can’t just count on that being the case. But I’m really hopeful.
TLH: how can the government help to support the LGBTIQA+ community through education in our schools?
JB: Supporting the safe school’s initiative would be a very good start. Also quite simply listening to and getting to know the LGBTIQA+ community and not be so ignorant.
TLH: how do you feel society has changed to become more accepting of its LGBTIQA+ component?
JB: I think it’s interesting to see much more LGBTIQA+ content in popular culture. The fact that it is so much more accessible through TV, social media etc means that it is very much more in the open and much more talked about. I really do think though that it is dependant on where you live and the type of community you are a part of. There are still very vulnerable parts of the LGBTIQA+ community that are definitely not accepted and that are really struggling. People are still being discriminated against in this country, beaten up, spat on, bullied. We can’t just all sit around watching Ru Paul and Ellen and think that everything is taken care of and that everything is all good now. That change is incremental and ongoing.
TLH: what do you hope people will have taken away from their FAMBO experience?
JB: I want there to be a sense of joy and of belonging. I want to centre contemporary queer artists and for that to be a real source of inspiration and a starting point for people to explore and participate and make connections with each other. I want an atmosphere that is celebratory and that gives kids an opportunity to see how vibrant and exciting the queer community actually is and that it is welcoming to kids and families. It should also just be a heap of fun!